Aviary

Posted on Sun Mar 1st, 2020 @ 8:49pm by The Narrator

3,235 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: S1.5:1:A Time To Heal
Location: USS Traveller, Flight Pod
Timeline: MD26 13.00

Canopus Station technicians were still working on flight pod's launching systems. Within the triangular Flight Pod mounted above the aft hull of the starship was a work of engineering complexity that would not have looked out of place in a pre-warp history book. At the rear of the pod was an elevator that could carry an entire fully loaded Mk3 Gryphon up from the shuttle bay, traversing through the armoured strut that connected pod and ship. From there the fighter was brought forward and locked into a launch cradle, three to either side of the pod with space behind the cradle for a second fighter to be prepped.

In theory, the magnetic launch cradle would accelerate the fighter to flight speed far faster than its impulse drives could have achieved, and then allow the second flight of Gryphons to be loaded and launched 30 seconds afterwards. The entire 82nd Advanced Deployment Squadron could be combat effective in under a minute.

In theory.

In practice two of the launch cradles were being carved apart by white jumpsuited techs and plasma cutters, following a pre-firing test of the cradles accelerator that resulted in the magnets of both launcher and cradle fusing together in a way that had been described as 'melty'. But the foremen of the work party assured anyone who asked, the work would be done on time and to spec. Current betting laid 3:1 odd's the Canopus Tech's would be shipping out with the Traveller when she departed port in a few days.

The flight pod elevator rose up from the depths of the ship, revealing the Expedition Security team lead by Gaz, and the paper jumpsuited figure of the Reka known as 'First Among Liars & Traitors'. The avian marauder looked around the work light illuminated space, breathing in a lung full of air scented with vacuum grease and the ozone tang of burning plasma.

"It smells like weapons fire and dead things," Lair & Traitor's said mimicking Gaz's voice.

Garrett had come to a conclusion that he would have to put aside any prejudices and other thoughts he had about the Reka he was about to escort to the flight pod with his team. He would focus on the task at hand, putting the safety of the entirety of the crew foremost. He glanced over at the technicians who were craving apart launch cradles with perhaps what could have been seen as 'too much enthusiasm' (then again, he had seen his parents at work and certainly made no judgements there either).

"Probably because it is." Gaz responded, his eyes narrowing at his own voice being mimicked back to him. It was still very odd to hear coming from another mouth; and one that could change their pitch and voice at any given time. "So, any of this going to work against the Myriad and the other Rekas?"

"If it is doesn't," Jolani answered in a flat voice, as she entered the room, "then we will all be dead. And for me, that is not an issue. However, I have a duty to keep you all alive."

"Frankly, I think that's a duty we all share, Lieutenant," Brynna drawled as she looked sidelong at the flight officer. She turned back to the Reka, still a little...wary as well, but trying to keep an open mind. "I am also curious as to your thoughts on this however," she said to Liar & Traitors or...whatever she was supposed to call her.

"My...thoughts," Liars & Traitors said, her voice shifting from Gaz's baritone to a slightly older rendition of Brynna's. "That the Deathly one is correct, there is only death here. The Five Baron's Den who guard the Myriad in the system you are targeting are counted in the millions. They will darken the sun with their numbers. So it is important that they do not see us."

"If we cannot utilize a cloaking device, I shall have to make sure that we have sufficient jamming signals and stealth to assure our secrecy," Jolani told those gathered. There was no fire to her voice, only that of a soldier who already accepted that coming out alive was not likely.

Again, it was the shift in voice that had always seemed to catch Gaz off-guard. He had glanced over to the others to see whether or not it had the same effect as it did on him. Perhaps they were paying attention, perhaps they weren't. Either way, it was his role to take notes to ensure that the crew was safe during this particular mission (which was tuning up to look more like a one-way ticket). "I don't like those odds." Gaz commented, his eyes narrowed as he considered their chances. He'd leave it up to the others to decide but he was going to run statistics and various run through simulations in the holodeck when he got a chance to. "Go with the assumption that the cloaking device isn't available and bring our jamming signals up to scratch. Would that be Locke or Shadi's particular area of expertise?"

"Any jamming signal you use will need to be subtle," L&T said, now utilising Gaz's voice to speak. "The Myriad are the masters of information warfare. Even a wastrel like Flenix will be able to see through obvious jamming. And once seen the forces of the Five Baron's Den will fall on us."

While he asked his question, Brynhild let her eyes wander around the flight pod and her current surroundings. Her mind raced. This was certainly sounding like a death run, and she had no desire to enter the Halls of Valhalla just yet. Odin and horns of ale were going to have to wait, because she did not plan on dying yet. How was she going to get her squadron through to the other side so the Traveller could follow their breadcrumbs?

"What are the weaknesses of the enemy?" she asked, almost to herself although it was directed outwardly. "If options are limited to hide us, how do we blind them?"

"The Five Baron's Den is controlled by five male Reka. Sickly, old, untrusting of the others. If we could set them against each other, even a minor squabble would distract them utterly," L&T informed, using Jolani's voice. The Reka turncoat turned to look at one of the Gryphon starfighters, causing her escort of Expedition Security to tense a little on their rifles. "How quickly can one of these strikers destroy a Reka claw craft? Which of you has blood on their talons?"

"All of us," Brynna replied on behalf of her pilots. "How quickly? Well, one on one, we have the superior firepower. It's when they're in numbers that it seems to trouble us."

Gaz cocked a brow again when L&T adjusted her voice. "Do you like my voice, Liars?" There was some amusement in his statement, crossed with genuine curiosity to why the Reka decidedly liked to use his voice more than others. However, he was back on track when the idea of setting the male Reka of the Five Baron's Den against one another, it got his brain ticking over once more as L&T turned to one of the Starfighters. He was cautious, his rifle raising up subtly, ready to fire should L&T decide to turncoat again but seeing as it turned out to be a question; Gaz lowered it - a signal for the other members of his security group to do so as well. "I guess we'll have to work out a backup plan if this current one doesn't work to set them apart."

"You think too loudly," L&T said to Gaz, her four eyes narrowing pointedly at Gaz before turning back. "If we can act quickly in an attack, you could make it look like one of the other Baron's turned on the others."

First Among Liars & Traitors reached out and placed a clawed hand on Jolani's shoulder. The action was quick, the same fluid grace that had seen a Reka boarding party mince through the ships security force a month before. But what came next halted all action in the flight pod. Suddenly there were Reka everywhere. In the cockpits of Gryphon starfighters. Working on the maintenance details. Where once had been work crews of Starfleet engineers, now stood alien marauders who had attacked them without warning.

And then Liar's & Traitors removed her hand from Jolani's shoulder, the illusion overlaid across the personnel in the flight pod vanishing.

"You are a Singer," L&T said in Jolani's voice, a note of pride in stolen word. "And a powerful one at that. Only the oldest matriarchs of a Den can do as much."

Jolani looked over at L&T. Her voice lost its flatness for a moment, moving towards a controlled rage. "The only place that I have ever sung is in my shower and all of my songs have died long ago." She paused for a moment remembering the Traveller's former nurse, "I seem to recall Tsabina or the Reka calling her a Singer. Why do you call me this? Let alone a powerful one? I am nothing to you. We are not related. Your name Liars and Traitors must be well named."

Gaz arched a brow in silent protest that he thought too loudly. He wasn't really sure what that meant, whether or not he was supposed to care about what seemed like a throwaway comment. But right now, they were dealing with problems and solutions. Gaz took note of the suggestion, nodding in agreement. "And let's just bank that plan A goes as well as it can do." He replied.

Though no sooner had he started speaking, an illusion had washed over the flight pod - Reka everywhere. Gaz stiffened, his jaw tightening some as he watched it unfold before it disappeared and L&T was back to speaking to Jolani.

Brynna's body suddenly felt tight as adrenaline had flooded it at the sight--the illusion--that had been set up around them. She didn't understand enough about the Reka, or Liars and Thieves before her now, to fully grasp what the creature was talking about. "What's a singer? I am fairly certain you don't just mean someone who likes opera," she interjected, voice and expression taut.

"I am first among Liars and Traitors, Reka able to best mimic the songs of others, to better hide our intent and meaning..." L&T said in Jolani's voice, this time eyeing the slightly raised rifles pointed at her. "As for the nature of a Singer, they lead the flock, direct its will and intent. They are the loudest voice, the most strident of tones. The fact that the merest touch was able to blanket all with my intent to disguise you as Reka..."

The Reka's violet plumage ruffled slightly, and she shook out her head in a neck twisting shudder.

"The Tsabina...this one we would call a Song Stealer. She takes the power of another to make her song stronger, to make her voice heard as truth. Song Stealer are rare, not since the Sundering have there been more than one or two. Their rarity is a blessing because Song Stealers bring out untold destruction, not even the Myriad can control without great effort," L&T said. She then raised a hand and pointed one of her arms at Jolani. "If we are to survive, this one must come with us so that she might cast my song of half-truths so we might live."

"Stop using my voice," Jolani protested, some emotion pushing through her normally flat tones. "And I don't lead anybody. I am not loud. I don't know what game you are playing but there is nothing special about me. All that died long ago."

L&T then reached out and grabbed Jolani by the throat. The spindly arm, hidden in the long sleeve of the replicated paper prisoners jumpsuit looked spindly, and yet with apparent minor effort, Jolani was hoisted into the air. And then suddenly there wasn't a Reka there. There stood a very human-looking make, skin as pale as snow, hair like spun comet dust trailing down a saffron-coloured robe. But his eyes stood out, burning like two lit coals in that perfectly sculpted marbler face.

The Myriad Abborax, the bane of Carpathia, and their first encounter with a Messier 4 native. But the projection shifted, stuttering in and out like a poorly maintained hologram. Perhaps the rage glowering in the Reka's eyes made the connection weaker, or the fish out of water wriggling of a choking helmswoman.

"I have fought my entire life to see this visage burned from my stars," a strange fluting voice said from the still Myriads lips. It was a collage of voices, syllables overlapping forming a harmony that was all and none at the same time. "When the Reka sundered our home, they poisoned us. Now one in every hundred Reka is born fertile, and those who are so fortunate are afflicted by disease and ill health. Only through the Myriads continued 'generosity' can my kind even procreate. At their sufferance. At their leisure!"

Liar & Traitors grip tightened, the telepathic projection caused by touching Jolani now smiling in freezing cold mirth.

"There is nothing I will not sacrifice to see them dead! Nothing I have not given to see my people free! I will not see another stillborn fledgeling because others choose to do nothing!" The terrible chorus of the Reka bellowed.

Choking, Jolani kicked out at L&T, hoping that she could free herself. While the concept of death did not bother her, she was not going to have someone who stole her voice and now was forcing her to act kill her. This creature was a danger to her and the ship. Duty required her to break free. While kicking out at L&T, she chopped at his arm holding her throat, trying to break the grip.

"LET HER GO!"

Gaz roared, his rifle up and pointed directly at the Reka's head. Perhaps it was not the best idea to aggravate a Reka, but right now, the safety of Jolani was his main priority. "Liars! Let go of Jolani or I'm going to be forced to taser your feathered behind!" His words came out clipped, his blue eyes lazer-focused on the Reka. He needed to think, needed to take in what was happening; was it the projections causing the Reka to slip on reality? Was it the fact that Jolani had something that he didn't know about (surely she didn't know anything about it either)?

"Sod this," Warning shots were fired, close enough to singe the Reka's feet but not close enough to taser her just yet. If she complied, he wouldn't have to take it any further. He looked over at the security ensign. "Flank left, if she doesn't drop her, on the count of three we'll stun her."

Jolani was dropped like a stone and a projected illusion of the Myriad trickster vanished, leaving Liars & Traitors standing with her arm outstretched. She turned her head to look at Gaz, the four yellow slit pupiled eyes burning with hatred. She then looked down at the blackened scorch mark on the deck where the stun blast had hit.

"I hope you have better aim when you go after the Myriad. They will not let you have a second shot," Gaz's voice reverberated with barely contained anger from the Reka. "Perhaps it was a mistake to set myself to your aid if you are all weak as to not wish to win in your victory."

"I wasn't aiming at you, Liars." Gaz replied, his voice turning cold. Fire meet ice. There were no jokes when it came to ensuring the safety of the crew and her captain. The skin around his scar on his cheek grew taught as a saccharine smile crossed his features. "Do that again, or even step near any of this crew - I'm making sure this isn't on stun."

Scraping herself off the floor, Jolani looked squarely in the eyes of her attacker. "You will explain yourself," she told L&T coolly. "And what you did."

"I did nothing," Lair's growled in Jolani's voice, a trill of something angry and true to her nature coming out in her words. "What I wanted was to make you seem as a Reka, to make you sight unseen to the Five Baron's Den who guards the Myriad we choose to attack. Upon touching you, it would seem all saw what I desired. It is a gift you squander, to make others see less than is true. Like a mewling chick you whine and bite at the air blindly."

Lairs looked to Gaz and Keil.

"With her able to mask us with me guiding the eyes of those who look upon us, we have a small chance to live..." Lair's stood up taller, the plumage of her neck rising. "If she does not go, and I with her, then we might as all die now."

"You make no sense," Jolani replied. "You did something. I cannot change our appearance."

"Are you saying that something about the lieutenant amplifies what you project?" Keil asked, wanting to make sure she understood. It wasn't the easiest to focus through the surge of adrenaline over the past five minutes, where she wondered if she was going to have to perform tactical maneuvers outside the plane, but they all needed to know more...and the phaser fire hadn't started flying. Yet.

"And yet..."

Lair's reached out again, this time to place a three-fingered hand on Jolani's shoulder. With the barest flicker she was standing in front of a mirror image of herself, a Jolani as hard-bitten and resentful as herself mirrored perfectly.

"...you seem more than capable of creating deception. We might yet have a chance."

"Stop that, right now! Let me be!" Jolani screamed with uncharacteristic emotion. She pried herself from Liar's grip, causing the image to disappear. "I have no idea how you do that but you need to stop. I am not your toy."

"But you are the means by which we will succeed. You can mask us with my help," Liars enthused. She turned to the others. "Please make her see sense. Surely death is not desirable?"

Perhaps to the frustration of others, Brynhild Keil was--if she was anything--practical. She looked between everyone standing around, everyone who was now really tense, and then back at Liars. "Will it harm her in any way?" she asked cautiously. There was a "good of the many" argument to be made and all that, but there was also always a "know all your facts" argument as well.

"No." Lairs said in a passable rendition of Keil. "The Singer will not be harmed unduly."

"You have an interesting definition of 'unduly,'" Jolani observed to Liars. She grew firm in her stance. "I will not do anything without understanding what is being done and why I can't do it on my own."

"Maybe we should get her to the Doc? She's new, but she might be able to explain whats going on?" said one of Gaz's ExpSec officers, looking momentarily shocked that he had spoken up. "I mean..I...er...if you think that's a good idea?"

"I think that's a reasonable plan," the pilot offered levelly.

 

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